Dir: David Frankel
Writ: Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the book by Lauren Weisberger

• Meryl Streep - Miranda Priestly
• Anne Hathaway - Andy Sachs
• Emily Blunt - Emily
• Stanley TucciNigel

I’d heard some fairly decent things about this film, and the trailer made it seem like good fun, but all in all I wasn’t impressed. Very average is perhaps the best description. Predictable and with a lot less snark than I would have wished for.

The main character, Andy Sachs, has such a predictable arc that it really isn’t an arc at all. And all the trailers pointing to Meryl Streep’s character as some huge bitch? Well she wouldn’t have been nice to work for, I’ll give you that, and I wouldn’t have stayed in the position, but nevertheless she wasn’t even half as evil as she could have been. I did like her use of the name Emily as a term for her assistant, introducing Andy as her “new Emily� but apart from that I really don’t see what all the raving was about.

Speaking of Emily though, I did enjoy Emily Blunt’s character, the original Emily. Although, now that I think about it, maybe she was never called Emily until she came to work at Runway magazine. But somehow I doubt that.

I’ve said all this but haven’t, as yet, mentioned a plot, so I suppose I had better address that. Okay, Andy wants to be a journalist. A proper investigative Lois Lane, but she can’t get a job, so as a last ditch effort she takes a on a PA job at a fashion magazine, because after this she’ll be able to land any role. But her naïve ways get her into trouble, and before long she is looking for ways to fit in at Runway. And these ways of fitting in? Well, losing weight from a “fat� size 6, and of course better clothes. And working all hours.

Some improvement.

But in the end, she learns that her old self is really better, and if she loves the world of journalism so much maybe she’d be better suited as a journalist.

So the whole thing is really a pointless journey round in a big circle of crap. That may be a little harsh, because while I watched it I was entertained by The Devil Wears Prada. But in the end it is very forgetable, and not worth a view.

IMDb | Eamonn Fitzgerald’s Rainy Day | Beaut.ie | wongaBlog | Judgement Day

Tags: 5 Stars, Aline Brosh McKenna, Anne Hathaway, average, based on book, comedy, David Frankel, Emily Blunt, forgetable, Lauren Weisberger, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, The Devil Wears Prada, unfunny

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Dir & Writ: David Twohy
Writ: Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat

• Vin Diesel - Riddick
• Colm Feore - Lord Marshal
• Thandie Newton - Dame Vaako
• Judi Dench - Aereon
• Karl Urban - Vaako
• Alexa Davalos - Kyra

I’m a big fan of Pitch Black, that low budget horror in space. And I used to be a big fan of Vin Diesel’s but recent film-roles have made me all a bit meh. Still, I’m surprised it took me this long to get around to watching this film, but I finally caved and got the dvd last week. And I’m not too disapointed that I waited so long, because to be honest this film is trying so hard to be something that it isn’t.

I’m not sure why they bothered to keep the name of Riddick, marketing I suppose. Because this film is totally unrelated to the original. The universe we are shown in Chronicles is totally unlike that of Pitch Black, and the characters are also pretty unrecognisable, those few who actually survived the first film.

But lets ignore all that and try to treat Chronicles as though it were a standalone film, with no history.

It is a sci-fi film, one of those with the clichéd army of evil. Here in the form of Necromongers, an army who are trying to convert or kill all the planets of the universe in order to reach their promised land, the Under-verse. It tries to get out of the stereotype by having this evil army do battle, not with good, but with a “different sort of evil”. Trouble is it doesn’t really work, because in this film Riddick isn’t really all that evil. Sure he kills people but what action hero doesn’t? And everyone he kills here was actually trying to kill him first. Fair enough I suppose, maybe the ending of PB really did change him.

Overall this is a question of style over substance. Style over story. And style over characters.

And yes, it all looks great. In a “look at all our cool spaceships”. And they try and make this intricate back story about the Necromongers and the Furyans (I don’t really care how it should be spelled), and invents this reason why Riddick is so great at killing. But it just doesn’t work for me. None of the characters have even half the presence of those in PB. I did quite enjoy Karl Urban’s Vaako, but not enough to make up for the rest of the film’s shortcomings.

It is an average enough film. Nothing spectacularly bad about it, but nothing great either. Though I’ve heard that the director’s cut makes it a better film overall. I can’t say, I watched the theatrical cut.

Tags: 6 Stars, Alexa Davalos, average, Chronicles of Riddick, clichéd, Colm Feore, David Twohy, Jim Wheat, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Ken Wheat, Riddick, sequel, sff, style over substance, stylish, Thandie Newton, Vin Diesel

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Author: Stan Nicholls
ISBN: 0575074876

On the back of this book one the quotes says it:

“Subverts traditional fantasy tropes by centring on the much-maligned orcs. It is quick, fast, dirty, very funny and often surreal”

Well I for one disagree with most of that statement.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 4 Stars, action, average, Bored Now!, clichéd, Orcs, Stan Nicholls, subverting genre

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